An examination of aspects of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) from a scientific perspective.

Friday, April 26, 2013

Cold case investigation - North Queensland entity case - W C Hall

Hi all,

This post continues my series of cold case investigations into Australian cases. I look for original documentation on these cases which has never seen the light of day before.

W C Hall:
Australian UAP researchers have long been aware of an entity case from the 1950's, from North Queensland. Indeed, my own Australian entity catalogue carried the following entry:

"Oct (?) 1954(?) North Qld, Hall.
A Mr Hall was inspecting sheep when he heard a whirring noise. He then saw six tiny white dots in the sky which landed. Close up they were ten metre tall cylinders with a rim or ramp around their bottom. About a dozen "men" got out and formed a group. They then re-entered the objects and took off. Mr Hall reportedly blacked out and had a vision of his property as a "fertile paradise." He says within two months this had occurred. (Sources cited were "Sunday Telegraph" Undated, quoting Sir magazine dated 23 Jan 1955."

No one I know of has ever been able to track down either the "Sunday Telegraph" article or the 1955 "Sir" magazine, until now.

Sir article located:
I recently had an email from US researcher Luis R Gonzalez who informed me that Mikhail Gershtein had located a copy of the relevant "Sir" magazine article. Gonzalez kindly forwarded me a digitised copy. Here, then is the story as carried by an original source.

The story:
The front cover reveals that the magazine was called "Sir! A magazine for males." W C Hall's account appeared in the February 1955 edition. The cover features a coloured drawing of a man set in what appears to be a desert setting. In the sky appear 10 white oval oval shaped objects. Across the drawing is a banner "Flying saucers on my ranch" by W C Hall. Pages 14 to 16 contain his account which reads:

"Flying Saucers On My Ranch

An Australian sheep grower gives a first hand account of fateful day when strange ships landed on his ranch!

By W C Hall

The flying objects that looked like petrol tanks came down on my ranch in Australia on a dull grey day in October. With my own eyes, I saw six of them whirl gently to earth like helicopters with propellers.

My ranch in the North Queensland section has 15,000 acres. It was once like any other Australian ranch, but now it's the weirdest place this side of Jupiter. But that's getting ahead of the story.

It all began when a heard of locusts swarmed over the pastures during the last days of August. The locusts destroyed things to the point where my cattle and sheep were hard put for something to eat. And they were getting leaner as the days went by.

One day in October while on an inspection tour I rode my horse to the top of a hill in a remote section of the ranch. The sky was overcast but vision was good across the broad plain that stretched before my eyes. In the distance I saw cattle grazing, trying to salvage something from the ravaged earth.

Then I heard a soothing whirring sound that almost made me drowsy. High in the sky I saw six tiny white dots descending, and the dots grew bigger and bigger as they approached the ground.

The objects which resembled petrol tanks, landed in the open pasture about three quarters of a mile away from me. As they touched the earth, the atmosphere became strangely calm. There was no breeze, no draft.

I rode my horse down the hill and towards the objects in order to get a closer view. They were about 30 feet tall, and elliptical in shape with a rim, or ramp running like a ribbon across their middle sections.

Then I saw people get out of the objects. There were about 12 men and from a distance they appeared to be perfectly normal. They were garbed in uniforms like those worn by American paratroopers whom I saw in Australia during the war. All stood around in a huddle and seemed to be discussing something.

Fascinated and curious I rode towards them. When I arrived at a point about three hundred meters away, the strangers got out of their huddle and, for the first time, saw me.

For a moment they paused indecisively, then turned and ran back to their machines. I was close enough now to see ladders of about ten rungs which hung from the side of each of the tank-like objects. The men scurried up those ladders and disappeared inside.

Then I heard the soothing whirring sound again as the six machines rose from the earth. My horse reared violently and thing began to happen. As I dismounted, the air became completely clear, and I dropped to the ground. I didn't know why. I just dropped to the ground.

As I lay there I saw an odd-coloured kind of exhaust fume spewing out of the objects and settling towards the earth. For about five minutes the things hung suspended in the sky, giving off the fumes before zooming off to become, once again, only white dots in the gray overcast.

All muscular activity ceased in my body, and I became as shaky as a mass of jelly. I blanked out, but while in that state of suspended consciousness a remarkable thing occurred. I became clairvoyant and events which were destined to come true paraded before my eyes.

It was almost as if something had been inserted in my mind. In my vision, instead of locust-ravaged land, I saw my ranch a broad plain of fertility exceeding the imagination.

Everything came on bountiful waves. Sheep, cattle, grass and all manner of animal and plant life grew and multiplied at an astonishing rate of speed.

While these visions were before my eyes, I lost all sense of gravity and I floated about five feet into the air.

In the distance I saw the tiny white objects giving out now with a whining sound as they faded into the gray overcast.

When I awoke from this trance, my first contact with reality was the sight of my horse. He was lying on the ground, senseless. I tugged at the reins for about five minutes before getting him on his feet.

Riding back to the ranch I wondered if I had been dreaming. I told my wife about the six strange objects, and she thought they must have been some new type of airplane.

Two months later, across the fields of my ranch I noticed an amazing transformation in vegetation. Ring bark trees stood like forests where a few weeks before the land was devoid of vegetation. Rabbits, the plague of good pasture land, bounded everywhere, devouring the grass as fast as it sprouted from the earth.

The next year on the ranch was fantastic.

Grass grew, not as a natural process, but came up matted, creating a soft rug of green over hundreds of acres on both sides of the river which ran through the ranch.

Chickens multiplied like rabbits, and some of the newly-born chicks had two feet. Cattle almost doubled themselves in number, and some of the heifers were born with five legs. The wool of my 15,000 sheep became thicker than ever before making shearing more difficult.

The only explanation for all this, it seemed to me, would be the six strange objects which descended into the pasture that October day. The oddly colored exhaust fumes they gave off must have contained atomic radiation capable of changing the genes of animal life. And even vegetation was affected by those magnetic rays.

The rapid increase in the number of cattle and sheep was accompanied by a corresponding increase in the problem of jack-rabbits. These pest eat up the pasture, devour seedlings and even under normal conditions vast sums are spent in trapping and poisoning the creatures.

But now the jack-rabbits may bankrupt the ranch at a time when production is at a peak.

My wife's going to have a baby not so long from now, and every night I pray the gene changes won't affect the normal life of our child.

The end."

Comments:
1. In the article, distances are quoted as "three quarters of a mile" at one stage, while later as "three hundred meters." This is an odd mix of imperial and metric systems. In 1955, Australia used imperial measures, e.g. miles, etc. Later the country adopted the metric system, e.g. kilometres.

2. The word "color" in Australian English is spelt as "colour." If the article was indeed written by an Australian they would use Australian English. The article uses American English. Of course W C Hall's original Australian English account may have been edited into American English.

3. The words "pasture" and "fields" used in the article, which are of English origin, are not used in Australian English. Here the word used to describe these terms is "paddock."

4. Regarding locust plagues in the month of August. I am very doubtful that this is accurate. I checked several sources on the Internet and confirmed mu suspicions that plague of locusts are indeed a summer phenomenon i.e. November to February here in Australia in Queensland. In addition, the article uses the word "heard" of locusts, whereas in Australia we refer to a "swarm" of locusts.

5. The article uses the term "ranch," which is not a term which would be used by an Australian writer. Here the term "station" has been in long term use. Again, this suggests the article was either written or edited by someone using American English.

6. The setting of the account is delightfully vague. It is set in "North Queensland" which is a awfully large area. No specific location is given. There is no mention of a town or locality.

7. All in all, it seems a delightful tale, more likely written by an American, setting it in a vague overseas location, and drawing on imagery of genetic radiation and magnetic rays. However, I'll remain open minded enough if any blog reader can suggest otherwise.

Final note:
There is also a famous Australian UAP photograph (click here to view) which is said to have been taken by a W C Hall in Queensland in 1954. My own catalogue of Australian photographs merely states:

"Oct 1953 North QLD

Mr W C Hall photographed a dense looking tropical hat shaped UFO
of circular form with a prominent dome on top as it hovered over a herd of
sheep. (Sir magazine Feb 55.)"

You will note that it is a "W C Hall" and from "North Qld" suggesting that it is the same Hall as the entity case described above.

You will also note that the source I have is the same issue of "Sir" magazine as the entity case.